Tim Smith Summary: 3/6/12
Tim Smith was invited to speak to our class because he is currently a grad student studying visual rhetoric. While we're studying photographs, Tim's main focus was on rhetoric in film. He gave us a brief history of film. The first type of film he mentioned basically focused on one thing. I believe the example he used was Niagara Falls. The film was just a static shot of the water flowing over the edge. As the technology grew, so did the film experience. Movies soon included a story, and this has led us to where we are with film today. Tim also talked about the montage theory we learned about in class. He demonstrated this theory by showing a film where something would happen, and then the film would cut back to the same shot every time of a person reacting. This showed that certain shots derive quite a bit of their meaning from the context of the film. After this Tim explained a few other types of films, and talked a bit about Dadaist theories. All in all I enjoyed Tim's presentation.
Definition Response:
Way, the Def: The laws and regularities that govern the natural world and the people in it. In order to follow "the Way," one must not try to master these laws, but rather work with them. In a sentence: In order to find happiness, you must follow the Way. Source: "Rhetoric Users Guide" by John D. Ramage, Page 11-12.
Ben Miller
Tim Smith was invited to speak to our class because he is currently a grad student studying visual rhetoric. While we're studying photographs, Tim's main focus was on rhetoric in film. He gave us a brief history of film. The first type of film he mentioned basically focused on one thing. I believe the example he used was Niagara Falls. The film was just a static shot of the water flowing over the edge. As the technology grew, so did the film experience. Movies soon included a story, and this has led us to where we are with film today. Tim also talked about the montage theory we learned about in class. He demonstrated this theory by showing a film where something would happen, and then the film would cut back to the same shot every time of a person reacting. This showed that certain shots derive quite a bit of their meaning from the context of the film. After this Tim explained a few other types of films, and talked a bit about Dadaist theories. All in all I enjoyed Tim's presentation.
Definition Response:
Way, the
Def: The laws and regularities that govern the natural world and the people in it. In order to follow "the Way," one must not try to master these laws, but rather work with them.
In a sentence: In order to find happiness, you must follow the Way.
Source: "Rhetoric Users Guide" by John D. Ramage, Page 11-12.
Ben Miller